*trigger warning: pregnancy loss, domestic violence, breast cancer*

October is a month full of awareness. Last year I specifically wrote a breast cancer awareness post once a week. You can search for those posts and have a read if you’d like. This year, I found out that it wasn’t just Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but a month full of awareness. Along with breast cancer, there’s National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. I could’ve made posts for all three throughout the month, but I decided to do something a little different. I’m just going to drop a little information for each topic so that way each one gets a little spotlight and hopefully, you all will want to look up more about them.

Breast Cancer Awareness

• 268,600 women are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year.
• 2,670 men are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year.
• not every lump in your breast is cancerous.
• breast cancer death rates are higher for women in the U.S. other than lung cancer
• more than 3.1 million women have a history of breast cancer as of January 2019

National Domestic Violence Awareness

• nearly 20 people per minute are abused by an intimate partner in the U.S.
• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical violence.
• 1 in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner to where they feared they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.
• 19% of domestic violence involves a weapon.
• only 34% of people who are injured by intimate partners receive medical care.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness

• 1 in 160 pregnancies will end in stillbirth.
• 1 in 4 women loses a baby during pregnancy, delivery, or infancy.
• around 10-25% of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, usually within the first 3 months of gestation.
• the total number of stillbirths each year in the U.S. is about 26,000.
• around 22,000 infants die each year before their first birthday from accidents, murders, illnesses, and sudden infant death syndrome.

We may become aware and honor people who are going through these things in October, but they have to deal with them for more than just a month. Let’s try to remember the people who are struggling, not just in October, but year-round as well.

*Stats taken from: breastcancer.org, ncadv.org, starlegacyfoundation.org, dying.lovetoknow.com*